Disparities in victories, statistics and payroll rarely register when the Rangers and Islanders meet. Although the visiting Rangers entered the latest installment of the rivalry having won their last six games, while the Islanders had lost 9 of their previous 10, the Rangers could not exhale until the final seconds of their 4-2 victory Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum.
“Whenever we play in this building, it’s up and down, over and about,” Rangers Coach John Tortorella said. “You just never know what’s going to happen. I thought we were good at periods of times. I thought we were brutal at periods of times. We’ve been on the back side of these, in this building. We’ve lost a lot of games here. But it’s an encouraging sign that we found a way to win.”
The game was intense throughout, a crowd-pleaser and coach-pleaser, undecided until Brad Richards took advantage of a Josh Bailey giveaway to break a 2-2 tie with just under five minutes left.
When the puck dropped, all streaks and slumps flew out the window. So what if the Islanders were 1-6-3 since beating the Rangers on Oct. 15? It mattered little that the Rangers were the hottest team in the N.H.L.
“I thought we gutted it out,” said Ryan Callahan, the Rangers’ captain, who had an assist and scored an empty-net goal as time expired. “I thought we stuck to our plan. There were a lot of emotional swings in this game. Nothing comes easy.”
It rarely does when facing a geographical rival, despite the personal and team statistics. The Islanders did not resemble the league’s 29th-place team. Jack Capuano’s club is battling an epic scoring slump, having already been shut out at home three times.
Kyle Okposo, the Islanders’ first-round pick in 2006, was a healthy scratch after failing to score a goal in the first 14 games of the season. Blake Comeau, a third-line wing with 24 goals last season, was held without a goal or assist by the Rangers – a season-opening drought of 13 games. Bailey, the goat, is a recent ninth overall draft pick with no goals and only one assist this season.
While the Rangers’ defensemen – Brad Park or Brian Leetch, none of them – have scored 11 goals this season, the Islanders have not seen a goal from any of their defensemen during even-strength play. This was about the only trend that held Tuesday night in Uniondale.
But even when the Rangers took a 2-1 lead in the middle of the second period on a goal by defenseman Steve Eminger, the Islanders generated more scoring chances for the next several minutes.
The Rangers, however, had Henrik Lundqvist in goal. Displaying his love for soccer, he blocked shots with his head. Dropping his stick and sprawling his pads across the crease to make a stunning save on P. A. Parenteau late in the period, Lundqvist drew echoes of Dominik Hasek.
“Hank kept us in it,” Tortorella said of Lundqvist, who is 22-11-5 in his career against the Islanders.
After kicking the habit of committing too many penalties during their six straight wins, the Rangers gave the Islanders five power plays in a 25-minute span over the final two periods. The Islanders finally took advantage of the fifth one. While Artem Anisimov sat in the box for high-sticking, the Islanders’ young star John Tavares slid a perfect pass to the crease, past a surprised Dan Girardi and on the stick of Matt Moulson, who scored to tie the game at 6 minutes 58 seconds of the third period.
Puck possession and battle levels were even for most of the third until Bailey’s shanked clearing attempt went from Brandon Dubinsky to Richards and past Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, whose acrobatic play between the pipes was almost the equal of Lundqvist’s.
“We had a lot of guys work very hard tonight,” said Capuano, who has some legitimately positive video to build on.
If the Islanders compete as ferociously in their coming games against Montreal, Boston and Pittsburgh as they did Tuesday against the Rangers, they will rise from the basement of the Eastern Conference. But that has been the question in Uniondale for a generation. Can the Islanders sustain a high level of play and tenacity when the old barn isn’t as crowded and the opponent not nearly as loathed?
As for the Rangers, they will look for their eighth straight win when they play Saturday in Montreal. The last time the Blueshirts won eight straight was during the 1974-75 season.
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